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SYDNEY, Feb 7 AAP

February 07 2013, 1:48PM

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says the federal coalition should attract workers to western NSW as well as northern Australia, if it wins government.

A leaked coalition draft plan looks at splitting Australia into different tax zones and moving public service jobs to places like Darwin and Cairns.

Mr O'Farrell said if Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was considering introducing zone allowances to attract workers to regional areas, he should look not just at north Queensland but western NSW as well.

"If we're talking about zone allowances, if we're talking about tax breaks for people who live in remote areas ... let's not forget areas like western NSW," Mr O'Farrell told reporters on Thursday.

"You can't continue to concentrate, if you're a federal leader, just on capital cities anymore than the state premier of NSW should simply concentrate on Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong."

"If we're looking to properly run either NSW or Australia we should be also thinking, in my case, of people in regional and particularly western NSW who deserve job opportunities, who deserve services as much as those of us in cities."